It’s the financial crisis of 2008 and you are the leader of one of the world’s largest banks. How will you navigate the storm? How can you ensure your businesses’ survival?

Today we dine in the Big Apple with a CEO who did just that. After coming out the other side of the banking meltdown, he has a lot of valuable insights to share. We asked him about the most important of those lessons...and the answer may surprise you.

You must capture hearts in order to lead. How do you do this? By being a good listener. Whether they’re the hearts of your direct reports, your team, your company, your customers or your investors, the very first step in getting everyone on board with your plan is for those individuals to feel listened to and more importantly, to feel understood.

By nature, leaders tend to be more oriented toward persuading than listening. The hard truth is that persuasion can only be fueled by listening. Not only do you need to develop your listening skills, you also need to know what not to do. In this episode, Dr. Henry Cloud and Marten discuss how to build your listening skills. You’ll learn what questions to ask and why they’re important. You’ll finish with a quick check-list that will prove helpful for the rest of your life.

Sample Curriculum Tasks:

There are a number of roadblocks that stand in the way of effective listening.